Over the past 40 years, the TEDDY AWARD and the Berlinale have shared a deeplove for filmmakers who inspire audiences and widen our horizons through queer cinema. Today, it is with immense joy that we announces the SPECIAL TEDDY AWARD honouree for 2026: Céline Sciamma!

Sciamma, attended the Berlinale first with her TEDDY winning film Tomboy in 2011 and then returned as a screenwriter for Being 17 by French master André Téchine and again as the writer and director of her Competition entry Petite Maman in 2021. Her film Tomboy will be screened as part of the TEDDY40 Anniversary Programme during the festival.

Her ongoing influence and legacy as one of the most prolific and outspoken feminist and queer filmmakers of the 21st century is of huge importance, igniting the screen with singular masterpieces such as the aforementioned Tomboy to Girlhood or the ultimate intense summer storm love in Portrait of a Lady on Fire . The female gaze and desire central in different settings, periods and spaces but always connected to a physical experience. Sciamma is not only an influential filmmaker and screenwriter but in addition a passionate cinephile and human being with courage and posture.

The TEDDY foundation is honoured to award Céline Sciamma with the SPECIAL TEDDY 2026!